The Church of St Michael and St John and attached presbytery

The Church of St Michael and St John and attached presbytery

A Roman Catholic church and presbytery built between 1847 and 1850 to designs by J A Hansom, with the Lady Chapel added in 1884 by S J Nicholl of London, and the church interior enriched in 1899 by Edmund Kirby of Liverpool. The building is designed in the Early English Gothic Revival style.

The church is constructed of random limestone with yellow smooth sandstone dressings, slate roofs and cast-iron rainwater goods.

The plan comprises an aisled nave with a west baptistery, towers and porch, and an apsidal sanctuary with an attached Lady Chapel to the south. On the north side a low sacristy link connects to the presbytery, and on the south side there is a gabled projection.

The church is oriented roughly east to west and sits on a sloping site with the east end raised over a crypt. The east end is apsidal with seven tall lancet windows alternating with buttresses that merge into the thicker walls of the crypt. The six-bay nave has a clerestory of paired trefoil lights with quatrefoils over, set in plain, unmoulded dressed stone openings; the aisles have paired lights in longer lancets and stout buttresses with battered plinths. The west front is dominated by a pair of square towers with re-entrant angles and battered plinths. Each tower has a trefoil-headed recess for a statue and a small lancet to the upper stage, and rises to an octagonal louvered belfry with a conical octagonal spire. Between the towers, the west end of the nave has three tall stepped lancets with a continuous hood mould and sill band, topped by a carved stone cross finial to the gable. Below the window is a gabled and buttressed porch with a moulded stone gothic doorway featuring engaged columns and floriated stops. The flanking aisles with lean-to roofs each have a plate tracery window.

The presbytery is attached to the northeast corner of the church and comprises two storeys under pitched and hipped slate roofs with stone chimney stacks, prominent water tables and sandstone quoins. The west elevation has a gabled single bay with a first-floor turret at the right end featuring a perpendicular window to the apex and an overhanging hipped roof. This adjoins a two-bay section, half of which projects slightly and has single and double lancets to the first floor. The ground floor of all three bays is obscured by a twentieth-century porch extension and infill executed in similar materials to the original. At the left end is a broad gabled projecting bay with a triple-light mullioned window to the ground floor and scattered fenestration above. The rear elevation has two storeys plus a basement comprising a two-bay section ending in a projecting gabled bay, with a shorter square tower attached to the left. Fenestration is a mixture of multiple shoulder-arched and trefoil-headed lancets set within rectangular stone surrounds.

The sanctuary features a tall, wide arch with an encaustic tiled floor and a semi-domed roof with short hammer beams supported on corbels in the form of angels. The walls are lined with marble and mosaic: a plinth of triangular and lozenge motifs has a marble dado above formed of large panels of light pavanazzo edged in gold, surmounted by a broad band of mosaic divided lengthways by a serpentine motif with floral motifs below and angel motifs above. A string course of alabaster completes the scheme. Two of the church's original angel statues are retained to the sanctuary walls. The original high altar, modified in the 1950s, is reached by three steps with spandrels on the altar frontal filled with gold mosaic and raised circular marble plaques with saints and other symbols carved in relief, work dating to 1957. A screen wall to the rear is of panelled and traceried Travertine marble, and there is a canopied marble and Venetian gold mosaic monstrance throne erected against the apsidal wall at the centre of the sanctuary, reached from both sides by stone steps. The seven lancet windows to the apse contain stained glass depicting seven scenes from the infancy and childhood of Christ by Capronnier of Brussels. An elaborate and ornate marble and alabaster gothic pulpit is enriched with fruit and floral motifs and a relief carving of a large reptile.

The Lady Chapel to the right has richly carved stonework and painted decoration; the floor is formed of mosaic work, marble and alabaster and all structural elements, including the pillars and arches, are of marble. On the right side of the entrance there is an alabaster statue of Our Lady, and within the chapel there are three paintings portraying incidents in the Blessed Virgin's history: the first on the background beneath the altar represents the tomb of Our Lady and the ten apostles; behind the altar is the Assumption, and above the latter is the Coronation of our Blessed Lady.

The three-bay nave has moulded gothic arcades carried on stout circular stone piers. The nave roof is arched braced with each truss pierced towards the apex with quatrefoils and carried down the nave walls, alternating with clerestory windows, to rest on stone head corbels. The original plain benches with round-shouldered ends are retained and sit upon wooden platforms. There are Caen stone Stations of the Cross by Martyn & Co of Cheltenham. At the west end of the north aisle the baptistery retains its cast-iron gates and encaustic tile floor, and its octagonal font with trefoiled sides set upon a trilobed base with a crown-like counter-balanced oak cover. The north aisle also has a stained glass window of St Margaret of Scotland. War memorials to the Fallen of the congregation of both World Wars are in the northwest corner of the nave. The west end has triple lancets with detached cylindrical shafts containing stained glass depicting the Assumption of the Virgin by Mayer & Co. Below the west window there is an original organ loft supported on a pair of slender columns. The original organ remains but was rebuilt and probably divided at some time before 1921; in 1980 it was enlarged and the console removed. Timber and leaded glass double doors lead into the entrance vestibule.

The original mid-nineteenth-century presbytery largely retains its original plan including a sacristy with original fittings and a stone-built chimney piece, and a linking range at the south end. A spinal corridor on the ground and first floors gives access to several rooms; three of the latter retain a segmental pointed-arched stone fireplace and two others have panelled reveals and soffit to the window.